Topics

Perhaps the Stanley Cup final, and the way it finished, summed up the journey for Los Angeles Kings.

The trip to the top of the mountain was not without some scary moments along the way.

The party in Hollywood went until the wee hours of the morning; the hangover will last all summer.

The Kings aren’t a dynasty, not yet anyway, but they are certainly headed in that direction after capturing their second Cup in three seasons at the Staples Center on Friday night.

The Kings were crowned the champs with a dramatic 3-2 double-OT victory over the New York Rangers in Game 5 of the final and clinched the title in front of their hometown faithful.

“What we went through this year as opposed to 2012, the Game 7’s, the backs against the wall, what we went through to get to this point is unique,” said Kings winger Justin Williams. “Obviously every Stanley Cup is special in its own way, but we really had to earn this one.”

The Kings don’t get much in the way of respect, but that doesn’t seem to matter to them, they just keep winning. A team built with balance on every line and smart players who get the job done.

The best compliment anybody can give the Kings is that every line pretty much looks the same and all play the same way even if there is different levels of talent on each unit.

The way they win is nearly robotic. Down 3-0 to the Sharks in Round 1, they didn’t roll over, they fought back and got the victory. Down 2-1 in the third period of Game 5, they gutted it out and won in double-OT.

“It takes a lot of effort and will,” said coach Darryl Sutter. “But I think once you did it as a group, the nucleus of your team, I’ve said it lots and we talk about it lots in the room, the winning and losing part of it. It sounds off the wall, but a lot of times when you lose a game, you’re actually winning in a lot of other areas and you just believe in it.

“It showed up again (in Game 5). I mean, just over and over and over, went through it. We had to switch guys around. Just started gutting it out. I told some of the players, should we win the Stanley Cup this year in a different way, it just tells you we actually got better.”

The issue for the rest of the league is the Kings are going to be good for a long time. Yes, they may buy out centre Mike Richards, but this team should be together awhile.

Most of the key ingredients to winning this Cup have already been signed by GM Dean Lombardi. The nucleus is good, the club has drafted well and plays a hard style.

The only change the Kings could make in the off-season involves winger Marian Gaborik and defenceman Willie Mitchell. Both are unrestricted free agents and could cash in on July 1.

In the case of Gaborik, he’ll likely have to be convinced to stay but with a ring on his finger that might not be as difficult for Lombardi.

It should be no surprise the Kings were able to win this Cup. They were heavy favourites and it would have been a massive upset if they had surrendered their 3-0 series lead.

Though the Kings made a comeback against the San Jose Sharks in the first round, and overcoming that deficit is quite possible, you never got the sense the Rangers had the resolve — or talent — to do it.

All you had to do was look at the depth chart of these two rosters to realize the Kings would take this series. New York just doesn’t have the talent base to match L.A.’s size and strength.

“I guess in the fashion that we did it, the first time certainly wasn’t easy,” said defenceman Alec Martinez, who scored the glorious Cup clincher in OT. “To do it the way we did, it makes it special. It’s probably a little bit more of a storyline for you guys, but at the end of the day we were able to get it done.”

A Hollywood script with the perfect ending.

WEST IS BEST

Only three of the last nine Stanley Cup winners since 2006 are from the East.

Kings headed in dynasty direction

Perhaps the Stanley Cup final, and the way it finished, summed up the journey for Los Angeles Kings.

The trip to the top of the mountain was not without some scary moments along the way.

The party in Hollywood went until the wee hours of the morning; the hangover will last all summer.

The Kings aren’t a dynasty, not yet anyway, but they are certainly headed in that direction after capturing their second Cup in three seasons at the Staples Center on Friday night.

The Kings were crowned the champs with a dramatic 3-2 double-OT victory over the New York Rangers in Game 5 of the final and clinched the title in front of their hometown faithful.

“What we went through this year as opposed to 2012, the Game 7’s, the backs against the wall, what we went through to get to this point is unique,” said Kings winger Justin Williams. “Obviously every Stanley Cup is special in its own way, but we really had to earn this one.”